PARIS – “My story is included in the history books for school children,” Nasser Al-Attiyah proudly said in 2017, and with Sunday’s fifth victory in the Dakar Rally, he has guaranteed another chapter will be added.

The 52-year-old shares top billing as Qatar’s most accomplished sportsman with high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim but it is the latter’s Olympic gold – he shared the Tokyo 2020 title – that he would covet more than anything.

Al-Attiyah has competed in every Olympics in skeet shooting since the 1996 Games in Atlanta, showing the same gritty determination he has done in umpteen Dakar rallies to secure himself a medal of any kind.

Eventually it arrived as he won a shoot-off in the 2012 Games in London, beating Russian Valeriy Shomin – improving on his fourth place in 2004 with a bronze.

“I told myself that I must win the medal – for my country, for all Arabs,” Al-Attiyah told Sport360.

“I have everything in my home except an Olympic (gold) medal. It means so much.”

Al-Attiyah – who won Qatar’s only fourth-ever Olympic medal (it now has eight, including two golds from Tokyo) – had really hit his sporting straps as it came a year after the first of his victories in the Dakar Rally.

Four Dakar Rally wins later and failing to medal at Rio 2016, his appetite is far from sated.

He still entertains hopes of winning gold in the 2024 Games in Paris and inspiring more Qatari schoolchildren to take up either shooting or car racing.

“After reading about me, a lot of youngsters want to participate in shooting and racing,” he said.

Al-Attiyah once had three sports on the go but dropped horse riding, fearing a hand injury would prevent him competing in his other two sporting pursuits.

His love of derring-do and daredevilry had also pushed him towards becoming a pilot – he said that his cousins were pilots – as well but then he shelved it.

A chance opportunity to partner another cousin in a rally persuaded him his feet belonged on the ground and not up in the air.

It was his father Saleh, though, who had set him on the path to both his preferred sports.

Saleh bought him a Nissan Patrol when he was 18 and he enjoyed instant success nationally, while Al-Attiyah senior also took him hunting.

“My father said... (shooting will help) concentration and help your mind to be strong,” he said.

“Juggling between two professional sports and feeling the pressure to be the best in both is very challenging.

“But shooting has helped me excel in rally driving because of the immense concentration needed.”

Sunday’s Dakar Rally win was his second in a row, while Argentina’s Kevin Benavides secured his second motorbike crown.

Al-Attiyah won three stages and had more than an hour’s advantage in the overall standings over Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, who also finished runner-up in 2022.

Al-Attiyah’s Toyota teammate Lucas Moraes of Brazil finished third in the iconic test of endurance, which reached its climax in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

The car category may not have had a lot of suspense about it but the motorbike title race more than made up for it with plenty of thrills and spills.

Benavides – the 2021 champion – edged out Australian Toby Price by 43 seconds with Skyler Howes of the United States finishing third. Benavides trailed two-time champion Price by 12 seconds entering Sunday’s 14th and final stage.

“It’s incredible to pull off the win at the end of this completely crazy Dakar, and with such a small gap,” he said. AFP